This couple is hardly a role model for shared parenting, married or divorced.

To be clear, I'm not a fan of either, and I do get how tough it is for both of them, regardless of help, to take care of 8 kids. And they did get married very young (22) with very little life experience. (Doesn't excuse Jon's behavior while still married, if the rumors are to be believed. But given how he's treated in his marriage–only good for caretaking and not much else in Kate's opinion. Maybe not even that. Also, doesn't excuse Kate's behavior and constant rants at Jon.)

But it's clear that it isn't the number of kids that is the problem (yes, it exacerbates things). It's how they view marriage and treat each other.

For those who have not seen the show from the beginning, they may have missed how Kate basically forced Jon into a "third" child when she "unexpectedly" ended up with multiple embryos, and not one. (Really? Given the nature of fertility treatments today? Kate's a nurse, for heavens sake. She had to know better and the high odds of additional multiple births.)

Jon had been clear that he was content with the twins, Maddy and Cara.

And who knows who really wanted that TV deal. I'm fairly certain, given the need for money, that Jon felt he had to go along. I don't think he ever wanted to be a stay at home dad and that is fine. But Kate always acted as if she wanted to stay home, if she could. She liked running the house and the kids and Jon. Emphasis on "running."

Meanwhile, each parent does bring something to the kids (Jon's sense of playfulness and unstructured fun; Kate planning special events and stuff for the kids, but the woman is so controlling of everything. She makes Martha Stewart look like a slacker.)

But the reality is that this marriage was in trouble for a lot of other reasons, other than who is working, whether in the home or out. (And gee, isn't it funny that Kate is now OK with traveling and leaving the kids, when she didn't want to work locally as a nurse and leave them? Ah. Methinks when you are the center of attention and get money, it does change things.)

kate is a shrew. Period. She treats Jon like crap and with no respect as a spouse/mate and co-parent. She screams, she yells, she whines, she bullies. She embarasses me as a woman. Women like her who treat men like she does just make me sick. This is a terrible example for your children, who see this daily, than Jon maybe hanging out with other women, something the kids do not see.

Why would anyone want to live with her under any circumstances? Meanwhile, I'm glad they are apart because those kids already had five years of listening to their mother berate/belittle their father. They've already witnessed too much ill will and will need therapy later on, for sure.

Kate has "taken charge of her career"? Oh, brother is that what you call it?

Let's see how well that career goes when you basically tout yourself as an example of marriage/motherhood and you are neither.

I have issues with the idea of needing a SAH-parent because everyone gives this lip service but really expect the woman to stay home or else she's a bad mom.

I guess one has to swallow his or her self respect in the name of children being raised more "normally." I wonder what impact that has on children.

And they had money. Kate herself admitted that even while they were asking friends and relatives for help to pay their bills and were receiving assistance from the state. Don't even bring up the college card, everyone seems to forget that the State of PA opened TAP accounts for all eight kids. Considering the amount of money and gifts that still continue to pour into their greedy outstreched hands, can you doubt that those accounts are bursting? (Unless, of course, the Gosselin parents have withdrawn money from the accounts…)

The thing about the Gosselins is this – in the intro to an early show Kate shares that after they had the twins, they had the opportunity to adopt a little boy from Korea and that this is what John really wanted to do. But Kate wanted to have another biological kid, and then they ended up with 6. I think that this was the beginning of the end for them – I am not implying that John does not love the 6 kids, but that they as a couple were just fundamentally on different pages and wanted to go in different directions from the start.

Also, Kate was a nurse prior to having 6 kids at once – I have worked in Nursing and I can tell that if she had still been able to work (like maybe if they had adopted one kid instead of having 6) she would probably been able to express most of her controlling, organizing, intense energy at work, where it would have been an asset, and not had to take all that aggressiveness out on her hapless husband.

I agree he acts like a baby, but she has been downright mean and verbally abusive to him in public (although if he were more proactive, she may have been calmer, who knows?)

All in all, a fascinating sociological study masquerading as a tv show!

Additionally, I support Kate's decision to be the adult in the household. Jon may be more "laid back" but he is immature. They are trying to run a household of 8 kids, 9 if you add Jon. He does need to step up and support Kate in leading the charge to manage the household. There needs to be structure in order to avoid chaos and he does not seem able to handle this responsibility.